Vol. 81/No. 29 August 7, 2017
Washington seeks ‘reset’ with Moscow in Syria
The U.S. rulers goal in Syria is to reimpose some stability in the Middle East that protects their imperialist interests.
The conflict in Syria began in 2011 after Assad unleashed brutal military force to crush massive, popular mobilizations of working people demanding democratic rights and the end of his autocratic rule. Over 400,000 people have been killed. Contending capitalist powers have intervened, including Washington, Moscow, Tehran, Ankara and the monarchies on the Saudi peninsula.
Washington’s decision to provide limited aid to a small number of heavily vetted Syrian rebel groups in 2013 — proposed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — had limited effect. None of the recipients were ever provided with weapons capable of challenging the air power of Assad and his allies.
While a variety of rebel forces, including some backed by the U.S., made inroads against Assad, the situation on the ground shifted in September 2015 when Moscow intervened, backing Assad with deployment of bombers. Tehran joined Moscow, sending additional officers, troops and Shiite militias to take part in ground combat.
The decision of the Trump administration is the latest step in Washington’s shifting emphasis on confining its actions to attacks on Islamic State, in both Syria and Iraq. Washington continues to arm and support troops of the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units, who are engaged in an effort to drive IS out of its Syrian capital in Raqqa.
An unnamed U.S. official told the Washington Post that, given Assad’s current grip on power, the decision should not be seen as a concession to Moscow but rather, “a signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that the administration wants to improve ties with Russia.”
Washington seeks to establish a working relationship with Moscow to tamp down the fighting. Meanwhile, Moscow signed a pact with Assad to station aircraft and troops at Syria’s Hmeymim air base for the next 49 years, with an option to extend. The air base supplements Moscow’s Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean Sea.
At the same time, Washington signed an agreement with the governments of Russia and Jordan, supported by Damascus, for a cease-fire in an area of southwestern Syria that began July 9.
Speaking in Geneva July 15, where the latest round of U.N.-sponsored Syria “peace talks” have been taking place, Russian Ambassador Alexei Borodavkin said progress is being made because demands for the overthrow of Assad have receded. Participating in the negotiations are Assad officials and the High Negotiations Committee — a Saudi Arabia-backed stand-in for the anti-Assad opposition groups, who are too divided to have official representatives.
Washington-Tehran relations
The new U.S. policy “will give a boost to the Assad regime and strengthen the Iranians,” Col. Ahmed al-Hammadi, a Free Syrian Army commander near Damascus, told the Post July 20.Washington’s 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq that overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime there failed to create a new government that could unite the contending religious and political forces in the country. One unintended consequence of this and of Washington’s withdrawal was the emergence of Islamic State — a marriage of a group of Saddam’s officers who had been imprisoned by the U.S. and forces that split from al-Qaeda.
A second unintended consequence was the fast-developing political, economic and military ties of the Iranian regime with Iraq, also a majority Shiite country. Shiite militias controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards hold territory in eastern Iraq that Tehran envisions as part of a future land corridor connecting the Iranian capital, through Iraq and southwestern Syria to Lebanon on the Mediterranean, the home base of its Hezbollah militia ally.
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